In theatres and studios, the green room is a hideaway for the performers offstage. Between hard, punk-influenced chords and sparse but wrenching piano, their album Songs From The Green Room's raw acoustic rock perfectly portrays The Longest Goodbye in this element. The Overcast interviewed Tim Cottrill and Nick Gephardt to tap even further.
The Overcast: You recently took a break. How did the first show back go?
Tim: It was a lot of fun. We did some different songs that we had never tried before. On some of the new material I have been going the way of Neil Young and adding some harmonica to the tunes. We also had a guest female vocalist. The place we played is the same venue we had our CD release show last year. It's this awesome old row home with, like, 16-foot ceilings and a nice outside courtyard. We played right in front of these wide open plate glass windows and everyone walking on the street would stop and look in. As always, our fans are great and seem to show up no matter what.
How did the band begin, and how did you meet?
Nick: I've known Aaron most of my life. Aaron and his sister used to take piano lessons from my sister, but it wasn't until after me and Tim had been playing for a while that he came into the picture. Tim dated my cousin when he was like 17 or 18 and he played at her graduation party with two other older guys. I thought that Tim sounded really good. We didn't start playing right away but we remained good friends ever since then.
Tim: (Nick, thanks for bringing up the ex-girlfriend...) Our relationship was always more about our friendship than music though, which has always made everything work and why we have known each other for so long.
So how did Aaron become involved?
Tim: It was the week that we were practicing for the CD, and Nick had a piano in his house. He started playing a little thing on the piano along with "1000 Pictures" and I was thinking about how nice the piano sounded. I found this song I recorded at home and I was thinking about adding it at the end of the album as an acoustic song. Well, I started thinking it would be awesome to have it as a piano song.
Nick: That's how "Asleep" came to be on our CD with piano. Aaron had come to one of our shows and I told Tim how good Aaron was at piano. Aaron basically played that song with no practice, no nothing, just on a whim
Tim: It became among my favorite songs on the album.
Why don't you have a MySpace?
Tim: As far as MySpace goes, we used to have one, years ago. When MySpace first started it seemed like a great way to meet other musicians and to get our name out there. However, once MySpace became filled with pictures of scantily clad women--or I should say little girls--and we were getting comments that we viewed as inappropriate, we felt it was time to pull it down. Nick and I didn't like being linked to "friends" who in reality we would have nothing to do with.
We do have a PureVolume account, www.purevolume.com/thelongestgoodbye, and we love PureVolume. A lot of the bands we listen to we found on there.
Who are some of your major influences?
Nick: Well it's hard to narrow it down, but I'll drop a couple. Further Seems Forever (Chris Carraba), Cartel, Fall Out Boy, Truce, Conditions, Race the Sun, The Ataris, Jimmy Eat World, Something Corporate, Copeland, Phil Collins and Billy Joel. With the way our music sounds you wouldn't know it.
Tim: This list could take a while. Dashboard Confessional, The Smiths, Morrissey, The Cure, Album Leaf, Ben Lee, Gene, Damien Rice, The Format, Jump Little Children. There are a ton of others but these are some of my favorites. If you have not listened to Jump Little Children you should check them out--amazing musicians and vocals.
With so much punk influence, how did you transition into playing acoustic?
Tim: The punk influence really came from Nick. I have written every song ever on an acoustic guitar. I think the main reason why Nick and I did the CD acoustic was just due to the lack of drumming availability. I think we both in our minds hear almost every song as a full band song.
Nick: We always wanted to play a full on band but never found a drummer that we clicked with. But as always time was also lacking. Two people can get together much easier than three can with varying schedules.
How did you decide to finally record the album?
Tim: It had reached a point where we had written a bunch of songs and wanted to get them laid down. I found a studio that was running a special. It was actually affordable.
Nick: We had never recorded in a studio before. We recorded it in like four days, but really more like 20 or 30 hours--not a whole lot of time. Unlike a lot of other musical acts, this band thing was not our life; it was our hobby. I think our music would have been more polished if we had the time to put into it, but I'm proud of it and I'm glad we recorded. It's something you can always show people and say, "Yeah, I did that."
What was it like recording for the first time?
Nick: You have maybe 15 to 20 minutes of work in the studio and then you wait and wait and wait. Then you're on the spot again. It's interesting, to say the least. The recording process is hard. You have an idea in your mind of what you want something to sound like, and, some songs I'm proud of, but I'm not going to lie: sometimes I listen to it, and I say to myself, "I could have done a lot better." But all in all I have no regrets.
Tim: It was a bit of a struggle. I think I pushed Nick and Aaron a little bit too much, but we're still friends. Our recording engineer was a nice guy but not much help. We would record something and then he would look at us and go, "Are you happy?" How would we know? We never recorded before. The hard part came in the following weeks when I had to go and do the mix downs. I listened to the same songs so many times that by the time I finished them I borderline hated our own songs. Drew Mazurek actually did the mastering on the album. We were very fortunate to get him involved. He has worked with bands like Linkin Park, Liars Academy, Jawbox and Allman Brothers.
How does having such a long relationship and history together affect your music?
Nick: Me and Tim know a lot of what each other's songs are about, like one of Tim's songs is about time he spent in New York, and of course his beautiful wife Chrissy. Me and Tim always are right on key with how we wanted things to sound and he would always add a little more with vocals and guitar. There are very few times where we don't know where the other is going.
Tim: Before we are in a band we are best friends, more like brothers. We have both always said that if we felt that playing music together was going to damage our friendship we would stop and walk away. We value our friendship much more than the music.
What are some of your favorite things about being in this band? What have been some of the best moments?
Tim: I love being in a group with people I like. When I put on our CD I go right to the songs that Nick wrote and I love them the most. I accomplished what I wanted to: I was able to write a CD worth of material and people have bought it and told us they loved it. I had so much fun at our CD release show--we may have broke fire code that night. One of the best moments came at the last show Aaron and I played: I looked out in the audience and there were people singing our songs. Maybe it sounds dumb, but that was a crowning moment for me.
Nick: I think our best moment was Koffee therapy 2005 in December; we had like 55 people in a small coffee shop. I am no longer a real functioning member of The Longest Goodbye.
Why is Nick taking this break?
Tim: Nick has a lot going on right now. He recently got married and has accepted a whole new set of responsibilities. Also, he is in the middle of learning a new career, which is requiring quite a bit of his time.
Where does that take the band from here?
Tim: It means that for the time being he is not playing with Aaron and me and not involved in the daily band stuff that might come up. To me, Nick will always be a part of it because I respect him a lot.
What's coming up for you guys?
Tim: I don't really know what the future holds for The Longest Goodbye. I know that Nick, Aaron and I will always be good friends. Right now Aaron and I are working on writing some new material but we have not done much. Could there be another CD? I think so, but I could not say when. I can tell you that it would probably sound different, hopefully full band as was originally purposed. We do have a large amount of our first CD that I would like to move first. Music was never meant to be a career for us but it will always be a part of our lives. All I can say is keep checking the website for show updates. Hopefully this interview will steer some people towards the site and turn them on to our music.